


anytime you need a friend, i'll just be me

by CamsthiSky



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Study, Episode Prompto Spoilers, Final Fantasy XV Spoilers, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Prompto waves his middle finger up at the astrals because he ain't about this whole thing, Sort Of, Spoilers, The other two are here but don't play a big role, rated for language, this one is gonna be hard to tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 18:35:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28764903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CamsthiSky/pseuds/CamsthiSky
Summary: The Astrals have a plan laid out for Noctis, but Prompto's got something to say about that.
Relationships: Prompto Argentum & Noctis Lucis Caelum
Comments: 3
Kudos: 42





	anytime you need a friend, i'll just be me

**Author's Note:**

> fun fact: if you google "ever at your side" you automatically get a lot of prompto
> 
> seriously, i don't know what this is. the ending made me cry and my brain would not let me rest without throwing this out into the ether of ao3. have fun

“Noct’s… _inside_ the Crystal?” Prompto repeats in utter disbelief. “What does that mean?”

Ardyn doesn’t answer him as he walks away, just waves a hand, laughing. None of them—not even Gladio—try killing the man again. They’d all seen how he’d risen to his feet with hardly a wince after being shot point blank in the head by Prompto’s gun.

Instead, the three of them stand in quiet disbelief next to a darkened Crystal as everything they had been fighting for completely falls apart. Because Noct is _gone_.

Ardyn leaves. Prompto, Ignis, and Gladio do not.

Prompto’s hands are shaking.

“What does that _mean?_ ” Prompto asks again, this time to no one in particular. Or maybe to everyone. Maybe just to the Crystal itself. He turns to stare at the thing—the thing that had apparently taken Noct away from them all, instead of saving them like they had all hoped.

And— _shit_ —they had sent Noct ahead of them so he could get to the Crystal. Had they sent him to his doom? Had they failed their purpose as both Crownsguard and friends? What does any of this _mean_?

Above the ringing in Prompto’s ears from his own spiraling mind, he hears Gladio snarl, “He’s _not_ dead.”

Prompto hates that it sounds like Gladio’s trying to convince himself.

Prompto sucks in a shaky breath, turning to face his comrade. There’s that cold something back in Gladio’s eyes—the same coldness that had creeped in after Altissia and had only started to creep back out after Noct had collected the last royal arm in the Cartanica.

Gladio’s gaze shifts to meet Prompto’s. He says again, somewhat calmer, “Noct isn’t dead.”

“Of course, he isn’t,” Ignis says, his face still grim despite his words. “You are able to summon your weapons, yes?”

Prompto startles and does so easily. His gun appears in his hand and he dismisses it just as quick. He glances between both Gladio and Ignis as they do the same. Neither look exactly calm, but they look leagues calmer than Prompto feels right now.

Shaky, Prompto asks, “So, if Noct isn’t dead, and Ardyn is right about Noct being inside the Crystal…then what do we do now?”

No one says anything for a long while. Probably far longer than they can afford to wait. Prompto can only bite his lip, arms crossed over his chest as he tries to stop the notice tremble in his limbs.

Finally, Ignis says, “I suppose, we wait. We have no way of telling when Noctis will be released from the Crystal.”

His throat is tight, and Prompto swears his heart is about to break in two at the thought that stems from Ignis’s words. “So we just…sit here and do nothing?”

“I didn’t say that.” Ignis’s expression is fierce.

Gladio snorts. “Like hell I’m just gonna sit around here and waste time. There’s no way of telling when he’ll come out of there.”

“So what do we _do?”_ Prompto demands, his almost non-existent temper sparking.

He’s been through a whole bunch of shit in the past few days. They’ve _all_ been shit, but Prompto’s been going at it alone since Noct had pushed him off the train.

And yet, he’s literally never felt so _hopeless_ before. Sure, getting pushed off the train by Noct and the whole fiasco afterwards hadn’t been a walk in the park, but Prompto thinks that there had always been a part of him that had known Noct was coming, even before Aranea had intervened.

Right now—well. Right now, for all they know, Noct isn’t _ever_ coming out of that Crystal, no matter what Ardyn or Ignis says. And all Prompto wants to do is reach into the Crystal and _drag_ Noctis out.

“I suppose all we can do is get back to Lucis,” Ignis says, his voice tight. Strained. “We can’t abandon Noct’s people while we wait for him to come back to us.”

The sparks of Prompto’s temper burst into flame. Heat rushes to his face. His nails bite into his palms as his fists clench. No way in hell. Absolutely _not._ Leaving Noct here is _not_ an option. Noct came for him, and Prompto’s not going to let Noct—his best friend in the entire world—down by leaving him to get sucked into a magical sentient Crystal. He _won’t_.

Gladio rubs a hand over his face, seemingly oblivious to Prompto’s surging protectiveness. He sounds resigned when he asks, “There’s really no way to get him out of there?”

“If I knew, I would already be doing it,” Ignis snaps.

“Chill, Iggy,” Gladio says, crossing his arms. “I was just making sure.”

“We need to leave,” Ignis says, trying to regain his composure. “I’m sure there are still many daemons awaiting us beyond this—"

“No.”

Both Ignis and Gladio turn to stare at Prompto, but Prompto barely acknowledges them. It’s not like he’s actually talking to them anyways. Instead, he stares up at the Crystal, and says again, “ _No.”_

“Prompto—” Ignis says, probably thinking Prompto’s denying _Ignis_.

“You don’t get to keep him,” Prompto says, his voice shaking with tension and choked rage. He slaps a hand to the Crystal, thinks of Noct’s words to him—

_“I’m gonna make this world a better place. You with me?”_

—and Prompto snarls, “You _can’t have him.”_

Because Prompto had told Noct, _“Ever at your side,”_ just like Lady Lunafreya had asked of him all those years ago. Like _hell_ he isn’t going to keep that promise. That oath. To his friend. His family. His _king_. He won’t sit here and wait for the Crystal to spit Noctis back.

Prompto’s anger rises in waves and he slaps a second hand against the darkened hunk of rock and says it again, “You. Can’t. _Have him.”_

For a moment, nothing happens. The Crystal stays dim and dark, but Prompto isn’t deterred. He lifts a hand and pulls his fist back, punching at the damn thing. Desperate, Prompto yells out in wordless frustration and something inside him _reaches_ for any sort of trace for Noct’s presence _._

Unbelievably, it works.

The Crystal bursts to life with bright blue light—the same color of Noct’s magic—and Prompto can feel _something_ shift inside of it. With his hands on the Crystal, there’s no mistaking who it is that Prompto is feeling. So Prompto closes his eyes, grits his teeth, and uses the something that he’d used before to _pull_ for all he’s worth.

“That’s my best friend,” Prompto breathes, telling the Crystal, the Six, the entire world. “He’s my best friend and he’s my king, and _I will not. Let you. Take him._ ”

What happens next, Prompto will never be able to understand completely. It’s a mix of sensations. Prompto’s eyes are closed, but he still knows exactly when two other hands—Ignis on one side and Gladio on the other—reach out to touch the Crystal, too. The three of them are completely in sync. They breathe, think, reach, _love_ together, and they search for their king, because they’ll take no other option.

Magic swirls. The three of them pull one way and the Crystal pulls another. Prompto won’t let go, though.

Noctis is more than just a friend to all of them. He’s their _family_ , and Prompto refuses to wait for divine forces to spit his family back out into the world whenever they feel like it.

_Ever at your side._

He won’t abandon Noctis here.

Prompto doesn’t know how long they stand there, waging war against the glowing Crystal to return their king. It feels like a second and an eternity. Still, however long it takes, they pull and pull and pull, until at last, a flash of blinding white pulses from the Crystal, shoving them back against the guard rail.

Prompto hits the metal railing with a, _“oof,”_ and curses as he slides ungracefully to the floor.

And then he’s scrambling to his feet to see—Noctis.

Lying on the ground in between Prompto and the Crystal is _Noctis._

For one, two, three seconds Prompto is completely frozen, eyes wide and wild as he heaves for breath. Because—he’d actually done it. He’d gotten Noctis back.

“Oh my god,” Prompto finally says as the others start to shout. “Oh my god, Noct!”

Prompto unfreezes and slides to his knees next to his best friend’s still form, tears pooling in his eyes as he slides his trembling fingers over Noct’s feverish forehead. And he doesn’t even care that he’s bawling like a freaking baby, because Noctis is _here_. For the second time, Noctis came back to him.

“Ever at your side, Noct,” Prompto promises again. “Always.”

Astrals and magic crystals be damned.


End file.
